Comments on: Theologians, historians urge Benedict to slow Pius XII saint processhttp://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2010/02/18/theologians-historians-urge-benedict-to-slow-pius-xii-saint-process/
Religion, faith and ethicsTue, 31 Mar 2015 08:06:28 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.3By: drosaupanhttp://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2010/02/18/theologians-historians-urge-benedict-to-slow-pius-xii-saint-process/comment-page-1/#comment-23650
Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:24:56 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/?p=11936#comment-23650@ gabriel’s statement “However, his public record is well known and the available evidence seems to point in the opposite direction.” what evidence are you talking about, the communist’s or KGB propaganda which they themselves retracted? Even the Allied Forces especially america and britain failed to speak loud and clear in behalf of the jews notwithstanding that they have arms, you are expecting Vatican to speak loud and clear considering Italy was also an axis country and they don’t have arms and military force? huh!
]]>By: gwilenskyhttp://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2010/02/18/theologians-historians-urge-benedict-to-slow-pius-xii-saint-process/comment-page-1/#comment-23642
Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:36:40 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/?p=11936#comment-23642I think it’s important to ask what may be an uncomfortable question: why is Pope Benedict in such a hurry to canonize Pope Pius XII? Even though I think the Catholic Church has the right to rise to sainthood whoever they please, including its own popes, it may be counterproductive to do it with a person that was so visible and whose actions are so questionable. The Catholic Church moves at a glacial speed on anything they do; everything is done decades or even centuries late (think of Galileo). Yet, when it comes to Pope Pius XII, the Church wants to push the process of canonization forward as soon as possible, even as the debate rages on.

Perhaps the Church feels that the combination of time and new “facts on the ground” may whitewash the role of the pope and the Church during WWII. After all, it has worked in the past many times when the Church canonized many people whose record was atrocious, yet today we call them Saint This or Saint That and that makes them automatically good people. Pope Pius XII may have been a profoundly wonderful human being whose religious work may indeed warrant raising him to the sainthood. However, a pope is more than a religious figure. A pope is a head of state, and the head of a giant church, and Pope Pius had the misfortune to reign over it during the darkest period in history. Maybe he did indeed work tirelessly in defense of the Jews as his apologetics claim, and maybe his “heroic virtues” would warrant calling him a saint. However, his public record is well known and the available evidence seems to point in the opposite direction. As far as is publicly known, Pope Pius failed to speak loud and clear on behalf of the Jews, failed to prevent the German Catholic Church from providing the Nazis with baptismal records that allowed them to identify Jews, failed to instruct Catholics to stop murdering Jews, failed to officially instruct the clergy everywhere to give shelter to Jews, and failed to excommunicate any Catholics including Hitler, Goebbels, and many others in the Nazi hierarchy, let alone the actual Catholic perpetrators whose souls were cleansed by field priests as the soldiers, policemen or SS came back to the barracks with blood stains in their uniforms from the hundreds of Jews they murdered at point blank range that day.

I applaud the letter these scholars and religious figures sent to Pope Benedict. These people are experts on the subject and are familiar with the information available. Pope Benedict should heed their advice and delay the canonization process to avoid a backlash to the church. There is no rush. If the Vatican Secret Archives or other sources show the role of Pope Pius XII to have been different and scholarly scrutiny shows him to have indeed bestowed heaps of Christian caritas on the hounded Jews, then I believe the entire world would join the Catholic Church in celebrating Saint Pius.